It was not exactly the most exciting way to begin a season, but Penn State head wrestling coach Troy Sunderland will take it.

Paced by junior Doc Vecchio, the Nittany Lions' lone champion at 165 pounds, Penn State kicked off its 2001-2002 campaign at the East Stroudsburg tournament on Saturday. No team score was kept.

Vecchio, who won five matches on his way to the title, defeated James Henderson of The College of New Jersey, 7-3 in the finals.

"This victory gives me a lot of confidence," Vecchio said. "Hopefully it's a sign of things to come."

For coach Sunderland, Vecchio's victory did not happen overnight.

"Vecchio's win was a great confidence booster for him," Sunderland said. "It just reinforces all of the hard work he has put in and all of the progress he has made."

Although he was the Lions' lone champion, Vecchio was not alone in the finals.

Junior Nate Wachter, sophomore Scott Moore and freshman Joel Edwards all made their way to the championship match of their respective weight classes, but none of the trio were able to join Vecchio at the top spot.

Wachter fell to Jesse Janzten of Harvard, who is ranked in the top 10 at 149 pounds, 9-6. Moore, after an impressive 6-5 win over North Carolina's Brad Byers, fell to Michael Messina, 10-4, in the 141 pound championship. And Edwards, whose collegiate career is only two weeks old, lost to Anthony Reynolds, 11-1.

The Lion with the toughest day of the tournament had to be Pete Mielnik, at 197 pounds. Mielnik, who is wrestling with a strained ligament in his shoulder, had to wrestle seven matches but still only finished fifth.

The senior from Ephrata was forced into a tough matchup with Clarion's Eric Mausser, who beat Mielnik by one point last season, in the early rounds of the tournament. A tight match throughout, Mielnik made a costly mistake in the third period, giving Mausser a takedown and a 3-1 victory.

"I thought there was only four seconds left in the match, when there was really 40," Mielnik said.

"I took a bad shot and just gave up the takedown."

Despite the lack of dominating results, several encouraging trends emerged from the one-day tournament.

The Lions conditioning appeared to be the class of the tournament. The hard work put in during the summer and preseason is beginning to pay dividends.

"Our conditioning was evident," Sunderland said. "Sometimes we just out-conditioned some people. We would be in close matches and then in the third period the other guy would just quit and we could open up on them."

Another trend that had to put a smile on Sunderland's face was the prevalence of bonus point wins. With the Mat Town USA tournament next weekend, signaling the beginning of team competition, major decisions, technical falls, and falls become crucial to the outcome of both tournaments and dual meets.

Finally, a subtler theme began to develop on Saturday. Sunderland's program is beginning to turn lightly recruited wrestlers into formidable opponents

Sophomore Curt Thompson's victory at 184 pounds over North Carolina's Nick Richmond, a 1999 Pennsylvania state champion, exemplified this point.

"It's nice to see guys that weren't state champs catch up to guys that beat them in high school," Sunderland said.

"It's a product of hard work and the competition they see in the room every day."